“Managing Complexity” or “Managing in complexity” is a very common word at this time. This only means people have to take into account more and more changing factors before making a decision. It may seem obvious but it’s still useful to remind some people of that as we can see too many managers acting as if everything was still binary, predictable.

Complexity also depends on the company, its values. There is what is strictly necessary (figures, reporting) what is often considered as accessory (context, non structured information) and the icing on the cake : values which respect is adding and added complexity. Let’s also add the necessity of taking into account elements from outside the company. I’ll soon make a post about that but I’m often appaled when I see that so many people don’t pay any attention to what’s happening outside the organization’s walls : no intelligence, no weak signals detection, no benchmark. They live looking at each other and become victiom of the NIH and MCID syndroms (Not Invented Here and My Company Is Different), which is an organizational form of consanguinity.

In short, some companies are culturally more likely to take “others” into account when it comes to make decisions. By “the others” I mean employees but also all the ecosystem, the social reality the enterprise lives in.

This introduces two projects from Danone I’d like to talk you about : Danone Way Ahead and Trust by Danone

Ce qui m’amène à vous parler de deux initiatives mises en œuvre chez Danone : le programme Danone Way Ahead et Trust by Danone. [Read more...]